Revealed: NY Governor Plans to Experiment with Fracking in Economically Struggling Areas

Revealed: NY Governor Plans to Experiment with Fracking in Economically Struggling Areas by Alyssa Figueroa, June 16, 2012, AlterNet
The plan is part of a demonstration project in which the DEC would issue permits for a limited number of wells in certain areas and then monitor the fracking to see if the process could be done safely. Critics are calling on the governor not to use the residents of these struggling territories as “guinea pigs.” … “Many have fallen under the spell of the industry, which spends upward of $140 million a year on advertising and lobbying to convince people and legislators that fracking is clean, green, domestic and job-producing,” she said. … The process has been linked to various environmental and health damages. Research has also found that the fracking industry does not produce as many jobs as advertised. … Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, an environmental database website, said that it doesn’t matter how far down you frack because the process always generates wastewater that is radioactive and contaminated with toxic metals. “There is currently not a single facility in New York State that could handle this kind of gas drilling wastewater safely and properly,” he said. Hang noted an incident in Pittsburgh, PA in 2008, when contaminated wastewater ended up in the Monongahela River because the water was sent to treatment plants that weren’t designed to purify this highly contaminated water. As a result, 850,000 residents could not drink water.